Land of the free sours on capitalism: US poll

AFP ^ | April 9, 2008

[Pinkbell]

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Bad news for those fearful of "creeping socialism" in the United States -- only 53 percent of Americans now believe capitalism is the better system, according to a new poll Thursday.

Fully 20 percent in the Rasmussen Reports survey said that socialism was their preferred economic system -- a startling number that suggests growing disaffection as the "land of the free" fights its worst recession in decades.

Republican critics fret that President Barack Obama's big-spending recovery policies amount to an un-American "creeping socialism," but Rasmussen said its findings pointed to suspicion of business and government elites alike.

It noted that in another survey last month, two out of three Americans said that big government and big business often collude to undermine the interests of consumers and investors.

Meanwhile in another Rasmussen survey in late December, as Obama prepared to take power, 70 percent of respondents said they preferred a free-market economy.

"The fact that a 'free-market economy' attracts substantially more support than 'capitalism' may suggest some skepticism about whether capitalism in the United States today relies on free markets," the pollsters said.

Rasmussen said its poll question did not define capitalism or socialism. Twenty-seven percent were not sure which is better.

[muawiyah]

Nothing sad about it. It’s none of Rasmussen’s business what I believe ~ he can stuff it and just go home and leave me alone.

[Williams]

Uh 20% is hardly a basis to establish socialism.

[Man50D]

I generally take polls with a grain of salt. They can easily be manipulated to fit an agenda of the pollsters in several ways. Polls target a very small percentage of the population. A specific group of people can be targeted who the pollsters know will have a given response. Questions can be structured in a certain way to obtain a specific response. Pollsters can discard answers they don’t like.

[border bud]

If you listen to the ‘Man on the Street’ interviews Sean Hannity conducts on Thursday afternoons, and the lack of knowledge the interviewees have on any subject, in this survey it could easily be just that they don’t even know what capitalism is. They could be thinking of the big banks or the big corporations - especially since that’s how the media portrays capitalism - and not free enterprise in general. A lot depends on how the pollsters posed the questions. Maybe they should have asked them first if they know what capitalism is —

[BuffaloJack]

Why do we use the term Capitalism? Karl Marx coined the term. I prefer the term Free Enterprise System.

[elpadre]

obviously the girl has a good set of parents.

[stylin19a]

"The fact that a 'free-market economy' attracts substantially more support than 'capitalism' may suggest some skepticism about whether capitalism in the United States today relies on free markets," the pollsters said.

No..i's how the questions in the poll are worded and what words are used.

I wonder how many who were asked the question could describe socialism or capitalism ?

[Xenophon450]

A large part of the problem is that the general populous chooses to remain willfully ignorant. They hear on the news about bailouts and government intervention and attribute these foolish policies to a capitalist system. At best it is Interventionist and at worst, Socialist.

However it must be stated that there are some, a slim minority who know all about the hazards wrought by a Socialist system and do not care.

One last thought, these many individuals receiving government subsidies do not look beyond the thin veneer of distribution. They do not realize they are able to receive these “free” food subsidies or scholarships only because they were taken from the producing capitalist. Socialism can only “work” when it is subsidized by Capitalists.

I dare not assume that I know where every resource should be allocated in a vast economy, I leave those decisions to the millions of minds that make the market possible. It is the height of arrogance for any central planner to presume as much.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Hey! Every good freeloader knows that Socialism beats having to work for a living!

[hinckley buzzard]

The fact that a 'free-market economy' attracts substantially more support than 'capitalism' may suggest some skepticism about whether capitalism in the United States today relies on free markets," the pollsters said.

No. It reflects a profound ignorance of what "capitalism" actually means. The fact is shored up by the current finding that 27% of those polled were "not sure."

[Trod Upon]

There will come a moment when even the fools who voted for 0 will realize what they threw away.

[freekitty]

What another bogus poll.

[originalbuckeye]

I suspect that the questions were Left skewed. I also suspect that most, if not all, the respondents don't have a clue as to what Socialism is. They have just learned that Zero is a Socialist and they're ok with that as Zero is ‘their man’.

[Freedom2specul8]

I don’t believe the results of the poll...
I need to see the actual surveys, and the way they were worded...

[Freedom2specul8]

I thought the same thing...that’s why I want to see the actual survey. They can be worded improperly, on pupose, to get the results they want.

[Freedom2specul8]

Exactly right!

[driftless2]

Now we know exactly how many truly stupid adults there are in this country. Anyone who believes socialism is better than capitalism is by definition truly stupid.

[ExTexasRedhead]

A NATION AT RISK

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html

The Childrens’ Story by James Clavell

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/llefler/clavell.htm